Rat, Rabbit, And Rabbit Transformed Into Humans And Married Their Natural Enemies. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

In the warm yellow light of the garage, Zheng Feng didn’t overthink things and cooperated by stepping aside. He looked at Xie Yuzhan, who had returned several times tonight, and felt a degree of understanding.

Unusual events must have a reason.

And that reason…

He glanced at Bai Zhi, quickly averted his gaze back to Xie Yuzhan, and asked as if completely oblivious, “Why are you back again? If you forgot something, I can grab it and bring it up for you.”

Xie Yuzhan looked at Zheng Feng, then back at Bai Zhi, the curve of his lips slightly tight. After nearly half a minute, he said, “I did forget something. You can go back to your work.”

“Alright.”

Zheng Feng left the garage for the second time. This time, he probably wouldn’t be called back… ahem.

Why hadn’t he noticed that their CEO Xie was so contradictory before?

In the garage, Xie Yuzhan stood by the car for a while, his gaze fixed intently on Bai Zhi. Was he merely interested in this little rabbit?

Perhaps not.

His friends thought something was off, and upon self-reflection, he had to admit that the other person was indeed different from everyone else.

Unlike anyone.

It wasn’t until the sleeping person let out two soft hums, stirring in his sleep, and tilted sideways as if about to fall out, that Xie Yuzhan snapped back to reality. He stepped forward, and the tilting Bai Zhi leaned right against him, his small head even rubbing against his chest.

He lowered his eyes, gazing at the fluffy head in front of him, and a silent sigh escaped.

He gently rubbed Bai Zhi’s hair. The other person grumbled and whined a few times, like a small animal protesting the disturbance while asleep.

The voice was lazy, soft, and sweet.

Like honey flowing on clouds.

Once Bai Zhi quieted down again, Xie Yuzhan put an arm around his shoulders and back, lifting him into a princess carry. It was rare for him to sleep so soundly; it was better not to wake him.

The slender, tall young man wasn’t heavy, a comfortable weight curled in his arms.

This close contact was not unpleasant.

He carried Bai Zhi back to the room on the second floor, placing him steadily on the bed. He only removed his jacket and covered him with the blanket. The moment he touched the bed, Bai Zhi rolled over—facing him, curling his body, half his face buried in the quilt.

Very well-behaved.

Attending the banquet was not something Bai Zhi enjoyed; it was taxing. Sleep now.

He was about to leave when the corner of his eye caught sight of something in the half-open nightstand drawer. Looking closer, he saw various vegetarian canned goods, nuts, and dried fruit.

His eyebrows subtly furrowed. He looked back at Bai Zhi. Did he have a food hoarding habit? The drawer was packed full, neatly stacked, with no signs of consumption. If he was only hoarding but not eating, then preparing these was due to…

A lack of security?

Possibly.

But ultimately, these were harmless little quirks. He had no intention of exposing them, nor would he interfere.

As he left Bai Zhi’s room, he inadvertently caught his own reflection in the glass partition. He stopped to look, only to realize the upward curve of his lips.

He didn’t know when it had appeared.

He stared at his reflection for a long moment, then his mouth slowly straightened, the emotions in his eyes obscure.

After leaving Bai Zhi’s room, he went straight to the study on the third floor. Zheng Feng was already waiting. Company business and other miscellaneous matters were all handled by him.

Right now, everything else was secondary. The most important things were advancing the investigation and perfecting the overall strategy.

He should be focused and undistracted.

Bai Zhi slept very deeply that night. He dreamed he was back on the great grassland, with a gentle breeze, warm sunshine, the fresh scent of grass, and fragrant wildflowers. Running across the field, he was as free as the wind…

He felt a little dazed when he pulled away from the dream. It took several minutes to realize he had transmigrated and was now a human.

A human is fine, humans are quite good. He had encountered many things during this time and found that the human species was truly wondrous and great, with endless possibilities.

He liked the things created by humans.

He scrambled up, only then realizing he was still wearing last night’s clothes. But he didn’t think much of it. He must have fallen asleep drunk. His last memory was chatting with Xie Yuzhan…

Wait a minute!

Did the other person actually engage with his nonsensical topics? Did he actually chat with him about random things?

Was that just a drunken fantasy?!

He patted his cheeks and shook his head. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it. Time to shower, eat breakfast early. He had a lot to do today; the air-freighted herbs should be arriving!

He had overslept and spent time getting ready, so it was past nine when he reached the dining room. Xie Yuzhan had already left.

Seeing each other less was good.

After eating, he proactively took his dishes to the back kitchen. Lin Haiyan was preparing ingredients for lunch. He greeted her and was about to leave when she called him back.

Lin Haiyan looked at Bai Zhi and asked with a smile, “How did you sleep last night?”

Bai Zhi scratched his head and smiled sweetly, “I slept very well. I just didn’t realize I had such a low alcohol tolerance, one cup and I was out. I apologize for causing trouble.”

“No trouble at all,” Lin Haiyan said with genuine emotion, not pausing her work. “You were sleeping soundly when we got home last night. Yuzhan didn’t have the heart to wake you up and carried you all the way back to your room.”

Huh?

Bai Zhi was utterly astonished.

If he hadn’t already put down the plate, it would surely be scattered all over the floor right now.

He hadn’t thought about who brought him back to the room, but it absolutely couldn’t have been Xie Yuzhan! Why would he carry him? But Lin Haiyan had no reason to lie about something like this.

How could this wolf be a little gentle?

He stood rooted to the spot, brainstorming. Xie Yuzhan must have an ulterior motive, right? Wolves are full of tricks; saying eight hundred is conservative. They wouldn’t do things they normally wouldn’t for no reason. If he did, there must be a purpose.

So, is this a trap?

Is he planning to let him relax his guard, feed him well, fatten him up, and then “eat” him when he’s unsuspecting? Or maybe sell him off.

Both are possible.

His expression turned serious. If that were the case, he should be safe for now. He needed to find an opportunity in the next few days to test CEO Xie and figure out what he was thinking. No matter what, he didn’t want to repeat past mistakes!

Being eaten once was enough of a lesson. He only had this one little life, and he had to protect it well.

Having figured out his next steps, he temporarily put the matter aside.

Before the herbs arrived, he prepared his live streaming equipment and named his account “Ji Xiang Zhi Zhi’s Herb Garden.” As for himself, he would be called “Rabbit Shopkeeper.”

His true form was a rabbit, so the name couldn’t be more fitting.

Once the herbs arrived, he spent two days tidying up the large terrace. He video-chatted with Lu Qinghe and picked out some herbs to send to her.

He set up the streaming area in the study. Lu Qinghe knew a bit about this and helped him consult, getting the account up and running. Now he just needed to stream slowly.

His main goal was to find people to chat with and introduce various flowers and herbs. Everything else was secondary.

He was busy every day, and Lin Haiyan was constantly making different vegetarian dishes for him. They mostly suited his taste and were much more comfortable than what he ate at the Bai family’s house.

One lunchtime, he spotted snow lotus in the mushroom and tofu stew on the table, and his spirits lifted immediately. This was a luxury ingredient in a rabbit’s life, rare and hard to come by!

He had completely forgotten about it.

Thanks to the convenience of modern life, drinking a bowl of that soup almost brought tears to his eyes…

He missed the grassland.

He wanted to roll around in the grass, munch on flowers, and bask in the sun.

Lin Haiyan was confused and quickly comforted him. Knowing he liked snow lotus, she assumed he was feeling nostalgic and remembering the grievances he suffered at the Bai family’s house.

He rubbed his eyes and didn’t explain. Feeling nostalgic was indeed true.

When Lin Haiyan asked what other ingredients he liked, he calmed his emotions and quickly adjusted, counting them off on his fingers. Besides snow lotus, there were Rhodiola, Saxifraga, Edelweiss…

He liked all of these, but of course, snow lotus was his absolute favorite, without exception, though it was the hardest to find. Whether he could eat it in his previous life depended entirely on luck.

Fortunately, it was much easier now.

He could eat snow lotus as a meal!

Only Lin Haiyan disagreed, insisting on a balanced diet, the same line Xie Yuzhan used. But Aunt Lin would also pair snow lotus with many other ingredients, making different dishes for him.

The peak of his rabbit life was unexpectedly realized here. How to put it? Transmigrating into a human was truly great~~

Eating well and deliciously, watching Lin Haiyan skillfully use various tools to create tasty food, he gradually developed an interest. In addition to streaming, he started learning simple recipes from Lin Haiyan.

He initially just did it for fun, but the finished products tasted surprisingly good. Lin Haiyan praised his talent, and Zheng Feng, after tasting it, also thought it didn’t taste like a beginner’s cooking. Ah~

With all this praise, he was going to float away!

It was, well, quite satisfying.

Making vegetarian food was interesting, and having it as a hobby wasn’t bad. After he divorced, he could cook for himself. Rabbits could be self-reliant and feed themselves. It was naturally best not to rely on canned food; even the tastiest canned food couldn’t compare to fresh vegetables.

What surprised him was Xie Yuzhan’s attitude toward this.

CEO Xie said he could do whatever made him happy, he could mess around however he liked, even if he blew up the kitchen—it didn’t matter, it would be a good excuse to redecorate. Just as long as he didn’t hurt himself, so there wouldn’t be any awkward explanations when they went out.

Fine. Blowing up the kitchen, was that a jab at him? However, wasn’t this a form of encouragement in another sense?

And he truly wasn’t interfering.

That evening, they had a rare dinner together.

Xie Yuzhan always returned late, and Bai Zhi usually finished his live streaming late at night. He slept in five days a week, so the two rarely appeared at the same dining table. He was much more relaxed, but he was still thinking about testing the waters.

Seizing the opportunity, he ate a pan-fried dumpling with three fresh fillings to steady his nerves and said, “CEO Xie, I think you’re quite nice to me, indulging me so much. I can assume this is part of our initial agreement not to interfere with each other. But that night, when I was drunk and asleep in the car, you carried me back to the room—

“That doesn’t seem like simply treating me as a decoration, does it?”

That was clearly taking care of him, increasing their intimacy, and trying to gain his trust.

Xie Yuzhan’s chopsticks paused. This was likely something Lin Haiyan told Bai Zhi. However, he had done it, and now that it was exposed and brought up, it didn’t concern anyone else.

His expression was calm. He said, “As my nominal spouse, I don’t want you to get sick from sleeping in the garage. If we suddenly need to attend an event together, it would cause delays. I was just taking precautions.”

He glanced at his cohabitant. “Don’t overthink it.”

This left Bai Zhi slightly stunned. “I really was overthinking it?”

“Naturally. Instead of asking me, why don’t you ask yourself why you slept so soundly that you couldn’t be woken up.”

Bai Zhi choked, chugged half a cup of mixed-grain soy milk, and then continued to ask, “But you could have asked Uncle Zheng to bring me back to the room. You didn’t have to do it yourself.”

“…Aunt Lin and Uncle Zheng have been with me for many years. They are elders, after all. I didn’t want to trouble them with physical labor.”

Bai Zhi gripped the soy milk cup, blinking, staring at the calm, flawless expression of Xie Yuzhan. He felt a little lost.

He replayed the other person’s explanation in his mind. It seemed… plausible?

He could tell that Xie Yuzhan had a good relationship with Zheng and Lin. His explanation made perfect sense. Was he truly overthinking it?

But his intuition told him something was still not quite right.

Should he observe him a little longer? He couldn’t let down his guard around a natural predator, especially one living under the same roof.

Seeing Bai Zhi still in a daze, Xie Yuzhan looked down at his half-eaten breakfast. In the brief moment his eyelids lowered and lifted, he had already considered many things.

He asked, “It’s fine for you to only eat vegetarian food, but prolonged consumption can lead to nutritional imbalance. Aunt Lin made shrimp dumplings today. They are lightly flavored. Would you like to try one?”

Bai Zhi hadn’t recovered from the previous topic. Hearing Xie Yuzhan’s words, he frowned in confusion. Shrimp dumplings? Try one?

Of course not. He was perfectly fine eating vegetarian food.

But looking at CEO Xie, who didn’t seem to be joking, he wasn’t sure if his brain was still rebooting. A thought bubbled up—

Wasn’t this the perfect chance to observe him further?

When it was time to be timid, he should be timid—no shame for a rabbit. But when it was time to act, the rabbit also needed to take the initiative and seize control. His safety for the next few days depended on this move.

He didn’t want to live in constant fear; at least he needed to know where he stood.

He abruptly stood up, picked up a pan-fried dumpling from his plate, took two steps closer, and offered the dumpling toward Xie Yuzhan. He quickly said, “I can try it. Good food should be shared, right? This pan-fried dumpling with three fresh fillings tastes great too. You try it?

“You try mine, and then feed me your shrimp dumpling.”

Fair and reciprocal, that was good. Since he was human now, while he preferred vegetarian food, he wasn’t completely against trying new things.

However…

At this distance, he noticed the shape of the shrimp dumplings was unusual. They were little bunnies!! Heavens, why hadn’t he noticed earlier?! Rabbits!

These were rabbit-shaped dumplings!!

Xie Yuzhan watched the person who had moved close to him, his gaze deep and mixed with complex emotions.

Feed him?

Feed each other?

He couldn’t quite understand Bai Zhi’s thought process. He was clearly afraid of him, yet he dared to suggest such a thing and directly approached him. The little rabbit had crossed a boundary.

He could try the pan-fried dumpling with three fresh fillings, but not with the chopsticks the other person had used. And feeding? Did Bai Zhi think they were three-year-olds? Childish.

Too childish.